By Adria Cimino
Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) -- European stock-index futures fell, following declines in Asia, as a weaker dollar damped the earnings outlook for exporters and lower oil and metals prices weighed on commodity producers.
Air Liquide SA and Royal Philips Electronics NV, which make more than 20 percent of sales in North America, may drop. U.S.- traded securities of StatoilHydro ASA, Norway’s largest oil and natural-gas producer, slipped with crude prices. Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third-biggest mining company, retreated in Asia.
Futures on the Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 Index, a benchmark for the euro region, lost 0.8 percent to 2,394 as of 7:35 a.m. in London. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index may decrease 20, according to Cantor Index, a betting firm.
“What’s weighing on European stocks is the strong gains in the euro,” said Jacques Porta, a fund manager at Ofi Patrimoine in Paris, which oversees about $615 million. “That explains why the market can’t take off.”
U.S. stocks fell yesterday, erasing last week’s advance, as a deteriorating outlook for corporate earnings and real estate offset expectations that government efforts to revive the economy will succeed.
Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures expiring in March added less than 0.1 percent today, while the MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index sank 2.8 percent.
The Stoxx 600 Index has slumped 47 percent this year, the worst annual performance on record, after credit-related losses and writedowns at financial firms worldwide topped $1 trillion and the U.S., Europe and Japan entered the first simultaneous recessions since World War II.
Earnings Forecasts
Analysts have slashed their earnings forecasts, predicting a 16 percent drop in full-year profits at Stoxx 600 companies, compared with 11 percent growth estimated at the start of the year. Earnings in 2009 are expected to rise 0.1 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The dollar fell for a second day against the euro before a U.S. report that may show sales of new homes declined to the lowest level in more than 17 years in November. The U.S. currency traded as low as $1.4018 versus the euro.
American depositary receipts of Air Liquide, the world’s biggest maker of industrial gases, lost 2 percent from the stock’s close in France. ADRs of Philips, Europe’s largest maker of consumer electronics, retreated 0.5 percent.
ADRs of Statoil lost 1.4 percent. Crude oil fell for a second day, with the contract for February delivery declining as much as 2.2 percent to $39.05 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Metals Prices
Rio Tinto sank 5.2 percent in Australia. Gold dropped in Singapore, while copper, lead and nickel fell in London.
UniCredit SpA may move after Italy’s biggest bank by assets was downgraded to “hold” from “buy” at Deutsche Bank AG, saying that “the macro picture is sharply deteriorating, prompting a deep cut in estimates.”
Associated British Foods Plc, owner of British Sugar, was reduced to “neutral” from “buy” at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
SSAB Svenskt Staal AB might be active as the world’s largest supplier of high-tensile steel was lowered to “hold” from “buy” at Deutsche Bank.
“The prospect of recessions in the U.S. and Europe as well as a significant slowdown in emerging markets will lead to cuts in global steel prices and volumes,” the brokerage wrote in a note to clients.
Premiere AG may move. Germany’s biggest pay-television company renegotiated debt facilities of 525 million euros ($734 million) with banks on condition that it sells 450 million euros of new shares in rights offers backed by shareholder News Corp.
To contact the reporter on this story: Adria Cimino in Paris at acimino1@bloomberg.net.
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